Do Patriots need to give Stephen Gostkowski a boot?

Stephen Gostkowski is the Patriots' all-time leader in field goal success rate, and is competing against only himself this summer to retain the kicking job he has held for the past seven seasons.

But that doesn't mean, in the wake of another shaky preseason performance when it comes to three-pointers, that the Patriots aren't considering bringing in another kicker for a look, with the start of the regular season just three weeks away.

"Well, as I've said many times before, I would consider doing anything that I think would help our football team," coach Bill Belichick said during a conference call Saturday, a day after Tom Brady and Ryan Mallett carved up the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a 25-21 win at Gillette Stadium.

"I wouldn't rule anything in or out. If there was something that we could do that would help our football team, then I would. That's my job, that's what I try to do."

It was a stock response by Belichick, one he has used innumerable times when queried about making or not making a move during his 14 seasons as coach in New England.

What's interesting this time is that it took a full seven seconds for him to dust off this well-worn, time-trusty phrase.

Gostkowski has looked solid in training camp, but officially has converted just 2 of 5 field goal attempts in the first two preseason games. (He also had a make from 35 yards Friday negated due to a penalty.)

"There's not as much flow to a preseason game, but you're still trying to prove yourself every week," Gostkowski said after Friday's game. "The coaches can't help me get ready. It's my job to get ready physically and mentally. That's what I'm trying to do, and that's what I work toward. I just need to do a better job of executing when I get the shots."

Gostkowski has connected from 34 and 39 yards. The misses have been from 44, 53 and 50 yards.

The first two misfires, both against the Philadelphia Eagles, were wide right.

The other miss, against the Buccaneers, hit the right upright and occurred after Gostkowski found himself on the field for an unusual sequence at the end of the first half.

First, he made the aforementioned 35-yarder that was wiped off the board by a holding penalty. Then there was a false start penalty, a timeout by the Patriots for substitution purposes, and finally the boot from 50 yards that bounced off the upright.

"It's always good to be in situations that are pretty rare because you always want to be able to handle them well," Gostkowski said. "I thought it was a pretty good operation (with snapper Danny Aiken and holder Zoltan Mesko). I felt like I had a good kick, I just bit off a little bit more than I can chew and hit it off the upright."

The eighth-year pro, who joined the Patriots as a fourth-round draft choice in 2006, elected to use the long, strange series as a teaching tool.

"I've had so many ups and downs kicking before, it's a roller-coaster ride, and you just have to try to stay somewhere in the middle whenever situations like that happen and you don't come out on top," Gostkowski said. "If you go out there and crush it right down the middle, it's like, 'No big deal.' But it happened. So you try to learn from it, maybe go through your progression a little bit better next time."

In addition to ranking first in team history — Adam Vinatieri is second, having connected at a clip of 81.9 percent for the Patriots from 1996 to 2005 — Gostkowski is 11th all-time in the NFL with a success rate of 84.2 percent on field goals.

But that number is inflated by a remarkable stretch in which Gostkowski made 89.1 percent of his field goals in 2007-08. Eliminate those two seasons from the conversation, and his career mark stands at 81.9 percent.

That number was acceptable in Vinatieri's early days, but not anymore. Last season, 15 kickers who attempted at least 20 field goals came in at 85 percent or higher.

Gostkowski led the league in scoring last season with 153 points and was fourth with 52 touchbacks — a frequently overlooked, but always invaluable weapon — but was a middle-of-the-pack 82.9 percent on field goals.

That's the second-lowest success rate of his career, coming in behind the 76.9 he registered as a rookie in 2006 and matched in 2010.

And it's not as if the Patriots were sending him out for long-distance attempts. He was asked to kick only two field goals of 50-plus yards, making them both.

While Gostkowski is in the third year of a four-year deal that averages a hefty $3.5 million a season, his cap hit according to patscap.com would be a manageable $900,000 should he be cut, with a cap savings of $1.945 million for the Patriots. So money isn't an issue.

Gostkowski, for now, apparently still has the support of the Patriots.

"I think he's had a good camp," Belichick said. "He's worked really hard, he's in good condition, he's kicked the ball well — he's been hitting the ball very solidly, consistently.

"I know that he'll continue to work hard to do everything that he can, and so will the other people involved in the operation, snapping and holding, however that turns out. I have confidence that he's one of the best kickers in the league."